SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF CAATINGA VEGETATION IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF IBIMIRIM-PE

Abstract

The use of satellite images has been widely usedas help get better answers on vegetation dynamics. The semi-arid Northeast ischaracterized for presenting distinct characteristics of other Brazilian biomesso that there will be major changes in vegetation in a short time. This studyaims to evaluate the behavior of the caatinga vegetation in the municipality ofIbimirim, located in the pernambucan hinterland, through Landsat TM imagestaking into account climatological data. We used Satellite Landsat-5 imageswith passing on 9/3/1989, 9/30/1993, 9/20/1995, 9/28/1998, 9/18/2006 and 9/29/2010 all for the dry period and calculated the EVI and NDWI ERDAS Imagine9.1 software. By analyzing the indexes, we achieved a greater value of EVI andNDWI for 1989 and lowest EVI for the year 2010 and less NDWI value for the year1998, in addition to a gradual increase of temperature between that periods. Itis also noticeable water deficiency present in the studied period and thedependency of the municipality of irrigated agriculture to obtain greenerareas. The highest percentage of EVI is in class with values of between 0.150-0.200 while the NDWI presents highest percentage in class with values lessthan 0, the semiarid situation of the municipality.